No Time!! Baked Pasta

Submitted by jessi_mcg

"I'm a little addicted to baked pasta at the moment, and tonight I really wanted some but didn't have the time to wait for it to bake the usual hour or so. So...I came up with this!"

 

• Ready In: 35mins
• Ingredients: 12
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 2 1⁄2 cups whole wheat pasta (I like rotini, it holds sauce well!)
• 2 cups fat free pasta sauce
• 1⁄2 lb ground turkey
• 1⁄2 cup low fat cottage cheese
• 1 cup frozen spinach
• 1 garlic clove
• 1⁄4 cup green pepper, chopped
• 1⁄4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
• 3⁄4 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese (divided)
• garlic powder (to taste)
• basil (to taste)
• oregano (to taste)

directions

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Cook pasta according to package instructions. Set aside.
3. Meanwhile, in a small pan brown ground turkey over med-high heat. Remove from heat and add spinach, herbs, and cottage cheese.
4. Combine pasta, meat mixture, 1/4 c mozzarella, and sauce in a 2 quart casserole dish. Stir well to combine.
5. Microwave on high for 4-5 minutes, or until mixture is heated through.
6. Top with remaining cheese and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly and casserole is nice and hot.

Reviews

[bluemoon downunder]

Very easy to prepare, deliciously flavoursome and a recipe I'll certainly make again. I made a few adjustmnets to meet our taste preferences and, in one case, due to availability of an ingredient. I used ground pork/veal as I coudn't get ground turkey which isn't as commonly available in butcher's here. If I wanted some I could order it, but I wasn't that organised. ;) I used the recommended pasta and, in what became my step 3A, I sauteed 4 cloves of garlic, one onion and one leek, as I love the blend of flavours of these three together. I also doubled the spinach (can never have too much of it!) :) and used red pepper instead of green (personal taste preference). I added rosemary, sage and thyme to the basil and oregano. YUM! Loved the microwave step in this. Pleasingly, it didn't alter flavour but it did speed up the cooking time. Thanks for sharing this recipe, smellyvegetarian. I enjoyed its versatility (being able to play with it!) and we both loved the finished dish. Made for Newest Zaar Tag.

 

[Nif_H]

I really liked this. My one DS thought that there was too much spinach, but I agree with bluemoon downunder - you can NEVER have too much spinach! :) I made it as listed except that the recipe didn't say when to add the garlic clove and peppers (I used orange peppers), so I added them in when browning the meat. I added a good bit of the garlic powder, basil and oregano. Made for Went to the Market. Thanks! :)